Wednesday, October 31, 2012

On Halloween before the 2012 presidential election, I thought I would re-post one of my L4K Lemonade Stand Chronicles stories which I originally posted in 2009.

The L4K Lemonade Stand Chronicles:

Trick or Treat?

“Trick or treat, trick or treat,” Little Timmy was yelling as he skipped down the sidewalk. (Yes, Little Timmy skipped. Surprised?)

“Will you shut up!” demanded Barry.

Barry and Timmy were making plans for Halloween. It was always a day the boys looked forward to. They had closed the lemonade stand a month earlier so they now had more time for other activities. And nothing was more fun than pretending to be someone else and getting free candy.

But who would they be this year? And who would give the best candy and who would get their windows soaped or their trees TPed?

Timmy always liked pretending to be an economist. He had dressed up like an old English economist named John Maynard Keynes for the past three years. He also liked John Kenneth Galbraith. Barry always made fun of him for dressing like two “free market” economists. He had suggested a few more "progressive" economists to Timmy but Timmy’s dad wouldn’t allow him to dress like those guys. He had said something about no one would know Larry, Moe, and Curly these days. Barry hadn’t decided who he would be this year. He was toying with dressing up like Two Face, The Riddler, or pretending to be professional basketball player.

As the boys ran to meet up with the gang, Timmy suddenly took a detour around the old theater. Barry yelled at him to stop, but it took a block before he did.

“What is wrong?” Barry asked.

"I don’t like walking by the theater with that poster out front," Timmy confided.

“What poster? Oh, you mean the poster of that old horror movie It’s Alive!” said Barry.

“Yes,” Timmy said, “it gives me the creeps . . . what with that claw sticking out from the baby carriage.”

“It is just a movie, you chicken,” said Barry, “I have an idea. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself . . . or something like that. Let’s sneak in to the movie. You won’t be afraid when you see how cheesy it is.”

“I don’t know, Barry, the last time I saw a really scary movie I wet my pants,” admitted Timmy. But he trusted Barry so he went along.

They mistakenly sneaked into theater number two where a public announcement was being shown live. As they set down a very scary woman came on to make an announcement. She announced that the government would be making all the decisions now. She said with delight, “When health care is controlled by us, we will have the justification to do WHATEVER we want because health is an even bigger ace card than that stupid commerce clausewe have been relying upon for years as justification for ignoring the Constitutional limits on governmental power. Food, manufacturing, pre-natal testing, end of life, it all will fall under our control."

She laughed as zombies stood behind her nodding in agreement as if they were under some mind control. Timmy became scared and, well, let’s just say he ran home to change.

Barry got excited too. So excited and so hopeful that he too had to run home too. As he ran home he kept yelling, “It’s alive, it’s alive!”

Post Script

I hope no children got too scared reading this story. It is after all just a story. Isn’t it?

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Here is another excellent YouTube video which is part of Battlefield315's conversations with a liberal series.

Battlefied315 destroys this idealistic young liberal's arguments for socialism (or liberalism, or progressives, or statism). But as is typical of many young idealistic liberals, she is oblivious to how weak her arguments are. This is one of the most brilliant videos on this subject I have ever seen. Battlefield315 hasn't posted any new videos lately. I encourage him to get back at it.

I just stumbled upon this YouTube video and it is both hysterically funny and sadly accurate.

A recent survey has revealed that professors have gotten even more liberal. If you are conservative or libertarian, you should seriously consider not supporting these liberal indoctrination centers know as universities. This is especially true of the social sciences.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The children's cable channel Nickelodeon has invited President Barrack Obama and the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to answer questions from kids on the Linda Ellerbee hosted show called "Kids Pick the President." What is getting a lot of publicity is that Romney declined to participate. I have no idea why Romney would not want to do this. It would appear to be an idea venue to discuss the most significant issue facing kids, namely, the massive debt we are leaving them.According to a Nickelodeon poll the top issues for kids are 1. Same-sex marriage, 2. Education, 3. Health care, 4. Taxes, 5. Immigration, 6. Iran, 7. Energy, and 8. Jobs. The lists looks more like what a typical adult would say are the top issues. Obviously kids' opinions on politics are often a reflection of their parents' views or what they have heard on media (both social and traditional). So I am not surprised that The Entitlement Debt Bomb didn't make the list. But make no mistake it is THE issue that will doom today's children and future children to a reduced standard of living. The current US government debt is just over $16 trillion and growing which is equal to the total GDP of the US. The current debt is already lowering our standard of living due to the debt service and the diversion of capital out of the private sector. The bigger concern, however, is the total unfunded liabilities. According to some estimates the total unfunded liabilities are $100 trillion to $220 trillion. Most of the unfunded liabilities are associated with Social Security and Medicare. Most young people realize that they will never receive any Social Security. As pointed out in a previous post, entitlements and interest on the debt will completely consume the federal budget by 2025. There will be no more money for defense, courts or, well, anything else. Now certainly most of the "anything else" aren't Constitutionally authorized functions of the federal government anyway but neither are Social Security, Medicare, or any of the entitlement programs.So THE question to President Obama and Mitt Romney from kids should be, "How are you going to reduce the debt burden your generation is leaving my generation?"